Some trails you can just walk up. The rest come with a guide.
How steep the Batur path really is at four in the morning. What the Ouzoud falls hike costs with the boat. Whether Samaria needs a whole day. Reviews of guided hikes and day treks in 122 countries.
Madeira, along the Pico do Arieiro ridgePico do Arieiro & Pico Ruivo Hiking Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · from $37
Albania, the climb above Bovilla LakeBovilla Lake & Gamti Mountain Hiking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · from $12
Arizona, inside Lower Antelope CanyonLower Antelope Canyon Hiking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · from $94 Four hikes that explain what a guide is actually for.
A waterfall day in the Atlas, a volcano before sunrise, a slot canyon you cannot enter alone, and the gorge that takes from breakfast to the boat. What each costs and how hard it really is.
01The easy oneOuzoud Waterfalls Guided Hike and Boat TripThree hours down to the Ouzoud falls and back, with the boat across the pool at the bottom. Trainers are fine; the return climb is the only work in it.
02The 3am oneSunrise Mount Batur Guided Hike with BreakfastHotel pickup in the dark, two hours up loose scree, breakfast cooked on the crater rim while the sun clears Lombok. Take a fleece.- 03The permit oneLower Antelope Canyon Hiking TourAntelope Canyon sits on Navajo land and is closed to unaccompanied walkers. The tour is the only way in, and the light shafts are a midday thing.
04The full day oneFull-Day Samaria Gorge Trek Excursion & GuideSixteen kilometres down the gorge from Omalos to the sea, then a ferry you have to catch. Boots, water, and a start before seven.
Summit days: the part of hiking people fly for.
Etna at three thousand metres with a cable car doing the first half. Batur in the dark. Kilimanjaro over days rather than hours. These are the walks where a guide is the difference between a summit and a turnaround.
Six countries that do guided hiking properly.
Red rock and slot canyons, black sand and glacier tongues, two live volcanoes with paths up them, terraced valleys above a souk, and the sierras an hour behind the beach. Each one with the walk worth booking first.
In Iceland the hike is the ice itself.
Crampons go on at the edge of the tongue and the whole thing turns blue underfoot. Sólheimajökull and Falljökull are the beginner glaciers, Skaftafell adds an ice cave from November, and none of it is walkable without a guide and a rope.
Every Icelandic hike →
American hiking days: canyon floor, forest loop or waterfall run.
Nothing here is a wilderness expedition. It is a half day in a canyon, a guided loop under sequoias, or a waterfall trail with a van at each end. What separates them is the drive, the permit and the price.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Multnomah Falls and Columbia River Gorge Half-Day Hiking Tour
Slot canyonsAntelope, Peekaboo, Zion. Short, guided, permit-only.
Guided day hikesA ranger-paced loop with the driving taken care of.
Waterfall trailsMultnomah, Kauai, the Columbia Gorge. Wet boots.
Private guidesYour pace, your turnaround time, your photo stops.
National parksYosemite and Zion days, with the entry sorted.
All 82 American hiking days →
What a guided hike actually costs, by band.
Every hike on the site, grouped by the per-person price. A surprising number of the best walks in the world come in under the cost of a taxi to the trailhead.
Valley walks, waterfall mornings and the short guided climbs out of town.
The full-day standards: summit craters, glacier tongues, gorge crossings.
Private guides, multi-day base camps and the once-in-a-trip mountains.
- 1Ice Cave Tour and Glacier Hikefrom $165
- 2Everest Base Camp Trek – 14 Daysfrom $1,800
- 3Small Group Waterfall and Rainforest Hiking Adventure on Mauifrom $187
Three walks that do not exist anywhere else.
Paths exist everywhere. A crater rim you reach in the dark, a corridor of sandstone two metres wide, and a glacier you walk across on steel spikes do not.
The Sunrise Crater Climb
Batur, Acatenango, Etna and Stromboli all run the same shape of day: a pickup in the dark, an hour or two on loose ash with head torches, and the sun arriving while you are still catching your breath. The ground is warm in places and the wind at the top is colder than the forecast suggests. Operators turn people back when the seismographs twitch, and that is the reason the guide is not optional.
- 1Sunrise Mount Batur Guided Hike with Breakfast★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 9,660 reviews
- 2Mount Batur Sunrise Guided Hike and Natural Hot Spring★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 9,284 reviews
- 3Mount Etna: Summit Guided Hiking Tour up to 3,400 m★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 4,792 reviews
Walking Inside the Rock
Slot canyons are flash-flood plumbing, which is why almost every good one is ticketed and escorted. Antelope is on Navajo land with a timed entry; Peekaboo needs a vehicle to reach the mouth. Samaria and Ourika are the open-air version, sixteen kilometres and six respectively, walked downhill with a pickup waiting at the far end. Rain anywhere upstream closes all of them.
- 1Lower Antelope Canyon Hiking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 6,216 reviews
- 2Full-Day Samaria Gorge Trek Excursion & Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 3,191 reviews
- 3Multnomah Falls and Columbia River Gorge Half-Day Hiking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,108 reviews
Hiking on Ice
A glacier tongue looks flat from the car park and is not. Guides rope up, fit crampons at the moraine and pick a line between mill holes that move every season. Sólheimajökull and Falljökull are the two that beginners are taken onto; Skaftafell adds a blue ice cave that only exists in winter. Nothing about it requires fitness, and all of it requires someone who knows this week's route.
- 1Ice Cave Tour and Glacier Hike★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,746 reviews
- 2Falljokull Glacier Easy Group Hike★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,508 reviews
- 3Glacier Hike, Waterfalls and Black Sand Beach★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,285 reviews
Four hikes that run on somebody else's calendar.
Most walking can be arranged the night before from a guesthouse porch. These four are governed by permits, park gates and seasons that take no interest in your flight.
- 01Everest Base Camp Trek – 14 DaysTwo permits are needed before you set off, and the walking seasons are spring and autumn. In the monsoon the flights into Lukla simply do not go.
- 028-Day Small-group Lemosho Kilimanjaro Summit TrekkingPark fees are charged per day and nobody is allowed on the mountain without a licensed operator. The paperwork is done in advance or not at all.
- 03Full-Day Samaria Gorge Trek Excursion & GuideThe gorge opens around May and closes in October, and it shuts on any day the rain makes the riverbed dangerous. There is no walking it out of season.
- 04Sunrise Mount Batur Guided Hike with BreakfastPickup is between two and three in the morning for the sunrise, and the route closes outright whenever the volcano gets restless.
How hard is it, really? Read the four numbers.
Listings measure a hike in hours, which tells you almost nothing. Distance and ascent do. So does whether lunch is carried or bought, and whether there is a vehicle at the far end or you walk back the way you came. Everything below is sorted by how much of the day it takes and how much of it is uphill.
The hikes more people book than any others.
The whole trail index →Eight walks carrying tens of thousands of traveller reviews between them, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Ouzoud Waterfalls Guided Hike and Boat Trip
Travel from Marrakech to the 110-meter Ouzoud Waterfalls with a local guide such as Youssef, Hachimi, or Mohamed Boufarma. Walk through olive groves, visit an argan oil cooperative, see Barbary macaques, ride a small boat, and eat lunch overlooking the falls. The day lasts 10 to 11 hours and includes hotel pickup.
From · $17
Read our review →
2
Berber villages : Atlas Mountains Day Hike from Marrakech
from $15
3
Sunrise Mount Batur Guided Hike with Breakfast
from $27
4
Mount Batur Sunrise Guided Hike and Natural Hot Spring
from $36
5
Cinque Terre Day Trip with Optional Hiking or Pisa
from $66
6
Atlas Mountains Full-Day Hiking Trip w Lunch
from $26
7
Ourika Valley Trip with Waterfall Hike
from $14
8
Lower Antelope Canyon Hiking Tour
from $94
By country — where the guides are
By kind of walk — rock, ice, forest or crater
Hikes we have written up this week.
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Vancouver Rainforest Hike with Waterfalls, Suspension Bridge, Old Growth Forest
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Vancouver Biking and Hiking Tour including Lunch
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Montanejos Hiking Tour & Thermal Pools from Valencia
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